Working Bees
Our first working bee for this year was cleaning up the area of gardens between the train station and the lake. There was weeding of Watsonia, an orange-flowered, strap-leaf plant that has a bulb at its base. It is important to ensure the bulb comes out with the plant, and there were bulbs deeper in the soil that hadn’t sprouted this year but have the potential to in the future.
There were dead branches overhanging the path from banksias in this part of the garden too.
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Grants
In 2024, Friends of Emerald Lake Park secured a grant from Landcare/Melbourne Water to further support the Emerald Lake Park Vegetation Management Project. This grant has allowed weed control works, which entails enlisting contractors to remove Cestrum elgans, large Sycamore Maples, Holly and small-leaved Privet. This was followed by the Friends group micro-weeding, and then planting indigenous species grown by the Helmeted Honeyeater Nursery in Yellingbo. For the planting working bee, we were helped by a group from Aligned Leisure to plant the 100 tubestock, which helped immensely.
Our group would not be able to implement this project without the support and assistance the Cardinia Shire Natural Reserves Team give us.
Cestrum rafted over a fallen tree
New seedlings of Cestrum elgans
Sycamore maple having been drilled and filled (with herbicide)
Part of the area cleared of the weedy vegetation
Planting finished, Thursday 16 October 2025
FELP members and the Aligned Leisure team
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